SUAthletics.com, drop the bomb on us:
Syracuse men’s basketball players Eric Devendorf and Paul Harris plan to enter their names into the 2009 NBA draft. Jonny Flynn has decided to submit his name for the NBA draft but will not retain an agent, enabling himself the opportunity to return to Syracuse for the 2009-10 season.
Well...now we know. Wesley Johnson, we look forward to your contributions.
So if I'm reading that correctly, Flynn will not have representation but Devo and Harris will...thereby closing the doors on their careers. No word yet, just speculation.
I don't begrudge any of them the chance to go pro. If I was in their shoes I'd probably do the same thing. Still, I think the biggest bummer about it is the potential walking out the door. It's potential that these guys might not have ever really lived up to but it made us hope nonetheless. What Syracuse fan didn't look at the combination of Flynn, Harris, Devo, Rautins, Wes Johnson and AO and think this was a National Championship-calibur team?
Jeff Goodman over at Fox Sports adds a note about how Harris and Devo came to the decision:
Devendorf and Harris, according to sources, came to a mutual decision with Orange coach Jim Boeheim. Both endured their share of off-court issues while in school.
I can see reasons for both leaving. I outlined Devo's earlier today and as for Harris, well, there's only so many times you can be the whipping boy before you finally move out of the way of the whip. I don't see NBA futures for either of them but they can both carve out decent careers in the world basketball leagues. If Matt Gorman and Elvir Ovcina can do it, so can Paul Harris and Eric Devendorf.